China, Nuclear Tech, and One of the Great Intel Breaches in US History

In ‘This Week in History,’ a House Committee released its report, claiming theft of major tech weapons and the ascendance of a new global rival.

President Nixon and Chairman Mao during their historic 1972 meeting. The military espionage that marked the Cold War with the Soviet Union may have ended but another round of nuclear leaks was just around the corner. Public Domain

The Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb in 1949, years ahead of what the American intelligence community had predicted. This leap in nuclear technology was only made possible by their stealing technology from the New Mexico-based Los Alamos National Laboratory. The theft of nuclear technology came by way of a group known to history as the Atomic Spies.

Klaus Fuchs, arguably the most important of the identified "atomic spies" for his extensive access to high-level scientific data and his ability to make sense of it through his technical training. In 1950, he admitted to spying for the Russians since 1942 and passing on details of British and American nuclear technology. Public Domain